It would have made a great Twilight Zone episode. A man returns home after a six-year absence caused by the Civil War. He's the same man, and yet not the same. He's been taking lessons from Deepak Chopra or somebody because whereas before his departure he was a scumbag he has now turned into a populist hero of the Frank Capra brand. Is he an impostor? If so, why? And why doesn't the wife he comes home to recognize it? Why doesn't the entire VILLAGE see that he's a different guy? Six years isn't so long. When I look in the mirror I see the same Adonis I was six years ago, as good as ever. Better even.

The most interesting features of this movie would have turned on the mystery of the new Sommersby trying to adjust to the life of the old. Yes, he's kinder, and maybe a better lover, and his shoe size seems to have changed. But that's about it.

The bulk of the movie deals with a kind of love triangle between Richard Gere as Sommersby, Jody Foster as his wife, and Bill Pullman as a neighbor who had hoped to take Sommersby's place after a suitable period.

We have to sit through scenes of Gere and Foster falling more deeply in love, and learning to trust each other (and then not trusting, and then trusting again, and then not trusting, and finally trusting again). I hope that came out right. I was a little confused after a while.

The courtroom scene, in which Sommersby is charged with murdering someone, REALLY was confusing. A witness is brought in who claims to have know Gere when he was not Sommersby but somebody named Horace or something. This other Gere was a con man who pretended to be someone else, insinuate himself into the trust of his new community, gather up all their treasure for an economic venture -- maybe getting a town belle preggers -- and then take off, leaving them flat.

And then -- well, I don't think I'll divulge the conclusion of the story here because I still don't know what the conclusion is. I THINK Gere is actually Horace and that Horace killed the original Sommersby, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Nothing wrong with the performances or the direction. The music is a little soupy, the photography surprisingly fuzzy and unsunny, and the plot as murky as a pot o' skoosh.

I suspect the audience could have swallowed that initial implausibility -- Gere posing as a non-Gere after such a short absence -- if it had led to further curious incidents casting doubt on his identity. Not just the shrunken shoe size. The writers could have thrown in a shrunken hat size as well. Or his wife might have noticed something about him at night. Well -- let that go. Yes. All in all, it would have been a great Twilight Zone without all that love and intrigue being impastoed all over it. I didn't care for it. It seems too slow. But it has enough redeeming features that I can understand why some people might feel differently.

This is an okay film romance set in the South just after the Civil War. A husband returns from the war but he doesn't seem "right"--he looks a tiny bit different and acts too nice to be the same man. Eventually, this all comes to a head in a confrontation that might lead to the man's incarceration or execution. The sad thing is, his wife prefers this new man and would rather have him than the man who left for the war.

Technically, this is a pretty good film but certainly not a great film. The problem I have with it, though, is that this is a remake of the French film THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE--a TRUE account of a story like SOMMERSBY that occurred several hundred years ago. This Gérard Depardieu film is better acted and written, but also less "glossy". I recommend that if the story sounds interesting, why not just see the original since it is the better film.

The American Civil War has ended. A man claiming to be Jack Sommersby (Richard Gere) returns to his southern plantation. The town is overjoyed. His wife Laurel (Jodie Foster) outwardly accepts him despite being happily widowed from her abusive husband. Disabled veteran neighbor Orin Meacham (Bill Pullman) is her romantic admirer. The returned Jack seems to have changed into a better man and Laurel falls in love with him. They rebuild their family with their son Rob by growing tobacco with the locals including the newly freed slaves. Events and his secret identity threaten to destroy them.

The elephant in the room keeps me from falling in love with this romance. Richard Gere has a bit too much of his modern boyish charms. He seems out of place. I need him to have a more intense war-haunted demeanor. It may also help if Meacham is played by a darker and more threatening villain. It would have been great to have Laurel knowing Jack is an impostor from the beginning, accuse Jack in private right off the bat, and falling in love in spite of it. While I can understand why this romance works for some people, it doesn't work for me.